The Offical Game Thread

[Schumikonen 2]

You guys are to advanced for me, I am still playing Halo and Age of the Empire, my newest game is FSX which absorb a lot of resources from my computer and more now that I installed an F-16 from Aerosoft, that's a great plane I just finish the stealth mission in Belgium and have many more awaiting to be finished but I not investing in new games until I get a better computer.

[goferrarigo 0]

You guys are to advanced for me, I am still playing Halo and Age of the Empire, my newest game is FSX which absorb a lot of resources from my computer and more now that I installed an F-16 from Aerosoft, that's a great plane I just finish the stealth mission in Belgium and have many more awaiting to be finished but I not investing in new games until I get a better computer.

Halo is a great choice my friend, Try Halo 2 after your done with that one..

I tried the demo of HAWX and am planning to buy it soon, Pretty good flying game, without the hardness of taking off and landing. Completely deskilled and an arcade version, but fun never the less, Try it if you can...

Another game i'm playing nowdays is Trackmania Nations Forever (free multiplayer game). The physics are awesome and some stunts you can do on the game are breathless,

Also i went back to F1 99-02 for some F1 fun...

[whiskee 0]

TN Forever is a nice game to kill some time with, I've played the series for two years already... only I can't stand tricky puzzle maps. One usually needs to play on the same server for a while to learn something and stand a chance. (my id is xwhiskyx)

I'm currently playing Neverwinter Nights and soon about to start NWN 2, both titles I somehow missed aroudn the time they were released, despite myself having a strong fantasy geek gene.

What are some good racing games for PC released within the last 3 years? I'm still playing rFactor, too.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Ankit, do not get HAWX! Completed single player & played 2 games online & got bored so I suggest you just rent it!

[goferrarigo 0]

TN Forever is a nice game to kill some time with, I've played the series for two years already... only I can't stand tricky puzzle maps. One usually needs to play on the same server for a while to learn something and stand a chance. (my id is xwhiskyx)

I'm currently playing Neverwinter Nights and soon about to start NWN 2, both titles I somehow missed aroudn the time they were released, despite myself having a strong fantasy geek gene.

What are some good racing games for PC released within the last 3 years? I'm still playing rFactor, too.

my id is anky2cool, it's a good free game for lite playing, not using your head too much and nice speeds on some tracks... I prefer the dirt ones, luck is more valuable in that than skill...

Ankit, do not get HAWX! Completed single player & played 2 games online & got bored so I suggest you just rent it!

Yeah i didn't intend to buy it anyways. I only buy games which i want to play online, the single player ones i "rent"

[LabradoRacer 2]

Finally played & completed 'The Suffering'. One hell of a horror/action game. Copious amounts of blood, stabbing, shooting, decapitation, blowing up, foul language, a few tricky puzzles...what more could a game offer? Of the 3 possible ways to play the game, I played with 'good morals'. The way you play the game affects the ending. While playing in this way, it does seem you've a bipolar personality. For, when you've to protect human assets, you've to turn into a monster, literally, to slay other monsters. As Torque, the protagonist, you're the ultimate killing machine. No, wait, to call him a machine would be an insult, given that he's elevated killing into an art form, what with him painting masterpieces in everyone's blood. Everyone's life (or 'unlife') is at your mercy. You decide who lives & who doesn't. You are god. A nice touch in the game is when you slaughter anyone, you're covered with blood.

In terms of brutality, this perhaps exceeds 'Manhunt'. Actually, the latter would have trounced this game, 'cos you've to slaughter humans than monsters, but given that all the killing in 'Manhunt' was via cutscenes, it took away some of the roughness. By the way, I experienced an 'interactive cutscene' for the first time. Not much, it was just being able to switch on or off the flashlight in the cutscenes, but fun.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Sounds like a bloody amazing game Jay. Is it for the PC?

I've completed Assassins Creed 2, Silent Hill Homecoming and now currently running my way through InFamous.

Could not believe my luck today. In Gamestation, I bought Fifa 09 (i have 10 but part exchanged 09 for it) for 98p, and also Mirrors Edge for 98p. Not bad!

[LabradoRacer 2]

Sounds like a bloody amazing game Jay. Is it for the PC?

For PC, PS & Xbox. More info on www.gamespot.com

[LabradoRacer 2]

Here are a few games on my to-do list:

(all on pc)

Batman: Arkham Asylum

prototype

bioshock

far cry 2

crysis, warhead

gears of war

halo 2

rainbow 6 vegas

call of duty modern warfare

gta 4

Got any recommendations, fellas?

[Quiet One 15]

2009 made me rediscover the goods and bads of playing computer games. Some great ones. Unfortunately, the ones I wanted to play the most are the ones that frustrated me the most. Somebody help me understand those games!

Worst news in 2009:

- The Flight Simulator franchise is, for all practical purposes, dead. Microsfot idiots pulled the plug. Thankfully, piracy and independent developers are there to do what corporate companies can't and will keep it alive and mostly free or cheap. **** you, Microsoft.

- Ditto for Sacred 2, one of the greatest ARPG (Action RPGs) around. One of the few along with Titan's Quest (also defunct) to come close to Diablo II perfection.

Great games I played in 2009:

ARPGs

- Sacred 2: open ended ARPG with plenty of humor, things to discover, a deep skill system and more lootable stuff you ever dreamed of. Lots of fights, and your character is not twice the same. And the game is HUGE.

- Borderlands: A hybrid FPS with ARPG elements. Zany characters, plenty of dark humour, furious gunfights, and also plenty of loot and skills.

What I love about ARPGs is precisely the fact that they combine the adrenaline of a FPS or action game with the strategic thinking and immebse variety given by RPGs when it comes to your character behaviour and powers.

- Median XL mod for Diablo II: revitalizes the old game with a completely new set of skill trees, lots of uniques and runewords to customize your equipment in a thousand different ways, new quests, new uber bosses, new eveything. It's a tougher, more complicated version of DIablo II, and thoroughly enjoyable.

- Torchlight: A sort of revival of the original Diablo. Only one town where to get things and quests, and from there it's just way down into the dungeons. Kill everything, level up, get some cool new abilities and enjoy the fireworks. Simple, deep and lovely. Just like the original Diablo with a few updates to keep it from getting old. Even the music sounds similar. Maybe because some of the original Diablo developers worked in this project. In any case, worth it.

Racing Games

- Grid and Dirt 2: I love driving games, I just don't have the patience nor the knowledge to test setups in long 100 laps sessiones to find a setup for a race (a la rFactor) that is why I watch F1 instead of running in it . That said, I like simpler racing games with simplified setups but still some realism in its physics. Both Grid and Dirt give you that coupled with beautiful graphics and a great pace in your career mode advancing. Better than the original Dirt whihc was a little too annoying. NFS Shift was also a good try from the NFS franchise in that path, but I still prefer Codemaster's approach. WHat's more important, I can skip those awful drift races which were hard, frustrating and boring.

- GTA IV: Yes, it's no racing game, but I don't know which category it fits into. I like this one better than GTA SA. City is smaller but still huge. Even if it's the same old song, it is amazing to discover in every GTA game just how believable the world is. The level of detail in every person you walk into on the streets, the amount of things happening around you, the details in every alley, the interaction options...it is amazing. Even if you forget the same old mission mechanic (which is nonetheless superlative thanks to great voce acting and memorable NPCs) it is a pleasure to run around Liberty city wreaking havoc or just enjoying it. You can feel it is alive

RPGs

Here come mi greatest frustrations. I love the concept of these games, I love how the look and what they promise. Yet, they bore me to death before I even get too deeply involved in their story.

- Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect, Fallout 3, The Witcher: I want to play them. I so want to like them! But after hours of playing them all you usually have done is move back and forth doing a thousand tutorial/side quests which keep you doing stupid errands, mixed with very few parts with actual action. It wouldn't be so bad if they were like Sacred 2 that keeps you busy collecting lots of cool stuff and watching your character become increasingly powerful with each level of what there are plenty. But these games usually have limited character development, a low level cap, and everytime you get a mission stupid like "go take this letter to X" it means you have to go through 3 different sectors broken by loading times. The stories seem great, but you spend lots of time just chosing dialog lines which make them look like choose your own adventure. Do they ever get frantic? Do you reach a point where you stop just looking for a guy just to have a chat and then it's back to another to tell him you talked and so on? I hope so. But they take way too much time and my gaming sessions are not that long to enjoy a character that just talks with a bunch of people and then spends hours just walking from A to B.

- Oblivion: Close to the others, but at least loading screens are sparser which gives it a better flow, loot is better though skills are still hard to advance in a satisfactory way and too complicated. With a mod it becomes a lot better and there are plenty fo mods thankfully.

- Kings Bounty Armored Princess: RPG with strategic turn based fights. Intriguing and cool. In the tradition of the old Might and Magic games. Just started it but looks promising.

Strategy Games:

I'm no friend of RTS so no C&C games or such.

- Civ IV: Loved every game in the Civilaztion's franchise. They keep getting better.

- X3 Terran conflict: a GTA IV for space sim lovers. Impressive in it's economic system detail, and the freedom to approach the missions and your fleet building. Do whatever you want, it's always fun. Be a miner, a pirate, a bounty hunter, a military pilot...fly a single fighter or a huge dreadnought and lead your own army. The options are staggering and the complexities incredible. Love it.

Action Games:

I am no friend of simple FPS or shooters in general, not to mention that I hate platformers. That rules out most shooters (I rather play a game like borderlands which has the benefits of an FPS plus the customization of an RPG) and games like Assassin's Creed which looked beautiful, but is no game for clumsy people like me. So just one entrant here:

- CoD IV Modern Wafare 2: as usual in CoD games, the battles are frantic, the story is compelling and the missions variegated enough. Pity it is way too short and I am no multiplayer fan.

That's it. My computer never had these many games installed (now that I have a 1 TB drive, I can afford the luxury).

[dribbler 6]

Will Sony put me out of my misery and ever release Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3? I'm tolerating Need For Speed Shift but if I get one more arcade style drift with no proper lift-off oversteer, I'm going to Elvis my TV.

[cavallino 2]

Anyone tried playing 'Elder scrolls oblivion'? I tried to, but the sheer magnitude & byzantine options p**sed me off. I'm surprised as to how people loved this game.

Yeah I know, complicated eh? Go play Halo please, stay away from real games.

[cavallino 2]

Dirt2: still not on PC. Been testing NFS Shift, though. Seems like another variant of Grid. Very fun so far, nonetheless (I picked up a Renault Megane...not a good choice...but hey, it's a Renault)

Dirt 2 came out for PC. And it's horrible. It's been consolified. Jay-ified. There's an incredibly annoying interface and hardly any rallying, lots of crappy american off road racing modes which involve driving grasshoppers on wheels. Back to Richard Burns I go - can anyonetell me how to get RB to do widesreen resolutions?

[cavallino 2]

Portal is amazing. Great game, at least for one where you can't shoot anything.

The only true game is Unreal Tournament 3 on PC. Beware of playing it, it will steal many hours of your life.

Am I the only one who find portal boring. It's just a bunch of jumping puzzles - how original

[cavallino 2]

An ATI Sapphire HD 4890 with 1GB. For the first time I put some money ina better GC and not so much to get the best CPU. I went for an AMD Phenom quad core instead of an i7. It gaveme so far the most satisfying results for a computer buy. Usually had the best processor but could never get most of it for buying inferior graphics cards. This is a nice, balanced rig i got myself here. Can finally enjoy some gorgeous graphics from some games (FSX, most notably)

I also discovered that, no matter how gorgeous games look, I still find Diablo 2 more entertating than any of the others, even if it looks like crap by today's standards

Faster dual core > quad core for games

[cavallino 2]

Wow, I think your PC's able to play pretty much every game out there. To give your GC a high point in its existence, play Crysis. A game that combines eye candy, good story & action.

good story? Oh I forgot you think Avatar had a good story :@

[cavallino 2]

Got any recommendations, fellas?

Half Life

[cavallino 2]

- The Flight Simulator franchise is, for all practical purposes, dead. Microsfot idiots pulled the plug. Thankfully, piracy and independent developers are there to do what corporate companies can't and will keep it alive and mostly free or cheap. **** you, Microsoft.

I know =( And noone will boher making a proper flight sim now, instead they can make console games for stupid people.

- GTA IV: Yes, it's no racing game, but I don't know which category it fits into. I like this one better than GTA SA. City is smaller but still huge. Even if it's the same old song, it is amazing to discover in every GTA game just how believable the world is. The level of detail in every person you walk into on the streets, the amount of things happening around you, the details in every alley, the interaction options...it is amazing. Even if you forget the same old mission mechanic (which is nonetheless superlative thanks to great voce acting and memorable NPCs) it is a pleasure to run around Liberty city wreaking havoc or just enjoying it. You can feel it is alive

I didn't really like GTA IV, just felt like more of the same, the gameplay mechanics were too basic and I felt I was going the same missions I had been since GTA III.

[LabradoRacer 2]

good story? Oh I forgot you think Avatar had a good story :@

Mate, you're 100% wrong. I clearly remember telling you on msn that Avatar's gorgeous graphics/CGI made up for the stolen story. Even in the film thread, I've pointed out that the story is a stolen one. Nowhere did I say that it's a good story.

[LabradoRacer 2]

Half Life

Dude! That was the first video game I ever played, if you discount Minesweeper/Hearts/etc. Outstanding game. Waiting for Half-Life 2 Episode 3.

[Quiet One 15]

Yeah I know, complicated eh? Go play Halo please, stay away from real games.

Oblivion is a great game. But I agree with Jay, although probably from another point of view. I was never fond of TES' levelling system which forced you to do silly things like walking and jumping everywhere to improve your athletics skills. Seemed kind of silly to be a warrior in a full heavy armor jumping and prancing around. Also, the foes' levelling system meant that you would advance your character to the gazillionth level, get your best equipment and cool spells and such, only to be killed by a level gazillion+5 common rat. That is why I played it with a mod that placed level cap for the foes so it seems more realistic and really gives you a sense of advancing.

Dirt 2 came out for PC. And it's horrible. It's been consolified. Jay-ified. There's an incredibly annoying interface and hardly any rallying, lots of crappy american off road racing modes which involve driving grasshoppers on wheels. Back to Richard Burns I go - can anyonetell me how to get RB to do widesreen resolutions?

I played Dirt 2 (see my last post) I find it fun. Most of these games get boring rather soon for me. Yes, I agree there are too many off road challenges and too few rally tracks, plus you end up playing the same courses over and over and over again. Stil it looks great, and the handling is more challenging than NFS games. The interface is less annoying than that of Dirt and at least on my system runs very smoothly even with all options set to max.

Faster dual core > quad core for games

I don't really mind. My performance issues were usually more influenced by the graphics card rather than the CPU, so the slight increade in frames due to core numbers is marginal. Had no graphics issue with any of the games I mentioned and most of them run on ultra high settings.

good story? Oh I forgot you think Avatar had a good story :@

Tried Crysis. Twice. Both times uninstalled it. Bored me to death.

I know =( And noone will boher making a proper flight sim now, instead they can make console games for stupid people.

There's still X-Plane 9 which is great, although I like FSX better (most professional pilots would swear on X Plane's realistic handling, though).

The current trend of making MMOs and console games is ruining the better aspects of computer programing. Games are very simple, when not downright dumb, yet they take up 5 double layer DVDs, most of which are wasted in long, ultra realistic cutscenes that don't add to the game anyways and things like that. I like complex games, and graphics, although nice in games like racing games, are of secondary importance to me. PC games could have amazingly economic underlying systems simulated, deep physics, tons of story and such and you didn't need all the bells and whistles. Console games, are all about bells and whistles so you end up having FPS a plenty or "Console RPGs". Give me back Ultima VII anyday.

[quote name='cavallino' date='04 January 2010 - 10:38 AM' timestamp='1262612310'

I didn't really like GTA IV, just felt like more of the same, the gameplay mechanics were too basic and I felt I was going the same missions I had been since GTA III.

It is more of the same, but "the same" is, for me, just enjoying the immense, breathing world they re create. I don't bother that much with missions, actually. It's more like a game I use when I feel like shooting everybody around me.

[Quiet One 15]

After enduring hours of mildly engaging conversations which kept me going here and there doing absolutely nothing at the Citadel in Mass Effect 1, I finally got into space...and it was boring.

This weekend I will try my luck at ME2. Wish me luck. I am doing all this hoping that someday I will find what does make all these games so superb to everybody else but me.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Bayonetta, PS3 Completed. Pretty darn good too.

Currently pitting my wits on F1 championship edition. Finding it far too easy with all assists off and difficulty on max. NFS: Shift is good, but they lost the plot after Carbon.

[LabradoRacer 2]

Playing NFS Shift. Truly phenomenal game, even if you play with a keyboard. I've lost count of the number of times my heart pounded like mad during intense races.The racing lines are pretty useful & a nice addition. I still suck at drifting, though. Play in the 'first person' ie c#ckpit view. It isn't as much fun if you play in the 'third person' view. The cars indeed vary in a lot of characteristics, handling accordingly. Driving supercars...whoa...you've to brake *way* before than you would in a "normal racing car". Speaking about supercars, sad that Ferrari's not represented in this game. The sensation of speed , as the scenery blurs by, is simply out of the world. Nice to see a game that blends gorgeous graphics with outstanding gameplay. Go play it!

[Kopite Girl 0]

Even though we MSN about it Jay, I guess its alright to pass the time but for me anyhow I've seen nothing new in it. At first I really liked it but now, most probably after 9k hours on Burnout Paradise, I just cant see the difference. Besides, Criterion Games (makers of Burnout) are helping develop the new NFS.